The maturity of electronic commerce and acceptance of the Internet as a daily tool by a continually growing user base of millions of users intensify the need for communication engineers to develop techniques for enhancing network performance. With the advances in processing power of desktop computers, the average user has grown accustomed to sophisticated multimedia applications, which place tremendous strain on network resources (e.g., switch capacity). Also, because the decrease in application response times is a direct result of the increased processor performance, the user has grown less tolerant of network delays, demanding comparable improvements from the network infrastructure.
Consumers of broadband services typically are engaged in retrieving content from the Internet involving a transfer of large amounts of data (e.g., multimedia, graphics, streaming video and audio, etc.). Such heavy users can consume a disproportionate amount system capacity, thereby depriving other users of needed network resources. Traditionally, Internet Service providers (ISPs) do not have a way to effectively allocate and enforce available bandwidth between their customers. Such disproportionate use in amplified in a shared capacity system. Thus, these consumers demand that network providers ensure certain quality of service (QoS) levels. Accordingly, service providers are tasked with guaranteeing fair access by all users.
Based on the foregoing, there is a clear need for improved approaches for providing fair access to shared capacity systems.